Fourteen school districts from all over Northeastern Colorado sent a total of 105 fifth through eighth grade students to the Morgan County Fairgrounds in Brush on Wednesday, February 13 to vie for the title of Regional Spelling Bee winner in a battle of words that began with a 50-word written exam and ended in a spectacular 42-round competition.

Coming out on top were Fort Morgan's Jayson Marler and Julesburg's Gunner McEntee, who battled through 33 rounds of oral spelling before McEntee won the contest with the correct spelling of the word, 'exfoliate'. Students who advanced to the regional round were treated not only to the word-wise spelling competition, but were also given the chance to enjoy a movie and lunch before the top 33 students from the written round advanced to the oral portion of the bee. Haxtun's Eli Meakins was the top written test speller for the day, missing only four words.

After five rounds of words, the top 14 students from the oral round were left standing and all earned the right continue on to the 2013 Colorado State Spelling Bee to be held in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center's Mile High Ballroom on March 16.

As they move on to the state portion, all 14 will vie for the chance to move on to the National level of competition during the 2013 Scripps National Bee to be held May 28-30 in Washington D.

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By round nine the competition was narrowed down to the final two contestants, Marler and McEntee, who had to spell two words correctly in order to win. The two battled back-and-forth through another 33 rounds while struggling with words such as 'obstreperous' and 'megatonnage' until McEntee was named the winner after correctly spelling the championship word, 'exfoliate'.

The 2013 Regional Spelling Bee held at the Morgan County
Fairgrounds in Brush saw the final two contestants, Gunner McEntee
from Julesburg,(right) and Jayson Marler from Ft. Morgan (left) battle
through 33 rounds of words before McEntee came out the winner. Both
McEntee and Marler, the runner-up, with join the 14 total finalists in
going to the State Bee. (Courtesy Photo. )

Spelling Bee organizer Laura McConnell would like to thank the Morgan County Commissioners for the use of the Fairgrounds, the school districts and coaches for the help throughout the day, the Brush News-Tribune for the coverage, and the East Morgan County Library for the sponsorship of the Spelling Bee.

"The community-wide effort aided in the success of an exciting academic day for our students," she noted.